Sheild
by BecomingAmanda
Summary: My idea of what would have happened if Katniss had died before Peeta could give her the bread. one-shot for Caesar's Palace


It's down to the final four, the only one's left in the arena are Rue, Cato, Peeta, and I. I'm not quite sure how I've made it this far, all I've done is climb trees like my sister Katniss once taught me. Her name brings a sigh to my lips and I wish more than anything that I could have had the chance to say one last good-bye to her before she left us.

_There was a loud, desperate knock on the door and I weakly turned towards it from my sitting position on the ground. Katniss had insisted I eat the last scrap of food this morning, saying she would find more, but it did nothing to quell my stomach's now constant emptiness._

"_Mrs. Everdeen!" A desperate voice called out as whoever it was continued their persistent pounding. I shakily got to my feet and opened the door, knowing mother would not move from her bed even if the house caught fire, maybe especially than. There stood the baker's son, Peeta, his golden locks weighed down from the rain and his eyes desperate. My sister, who was more of a mother to me than anything, lay in his arms, her body still, and her skin pale. The worst part was her eyes, staring straight at me and yet looking at nothing. She was gone._

I remember that night, five years ago, and it makes me sad to think that she died alone. Maybe it was for the best though, she wouldn't have had to see that our mother killed herself just minutes after she left the house that morning, her wrists slit open; she never had to live in the home with me where my innocence was taken. Peeta had helped me than, he told me about how she had been hunting through the trash for food, and that one word jarred the memories of my father coming home with food he himself had captured in the woods outside our district. Peeta and I formed a friendship from then on. We went into the woods together every day, and we hunted, learning how to snare from another helpful boy in exchange for one of my father's bows. Peeta shielded me from potential danger out there, the wild dogs, the tracker jackers, everything. That's why when we were reaped together for the seventy-fourth hunger games he had told me, without a doubt in his mind that I would be going home; because he would shield me from everything no matter what it cost him.

"Prim?" Peeta asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he groggily tried to sit up.

"Hi there sleepy head. Careful now." Peeta had almost rolled out of the tree we were sleeping in. He was horrible in the forest, he always forgot we were in the trees when he woke up, he was loud and uncoordinated, but I loved him dearly and told him under no circumstances were we to separate.

"**Hello remaining tributes of the seventy-fourth hunger games, I would like to extend an invitation to you to attend a feast at dawn by the cornucopia." **

This announcement was not unusual; they usually announced feasts whenever the tributes were being 'boring'. I knew that we would have to attend, it was required. A girl a few years back had neglected to go and been struck by lightning a few hours later, no one could pretend it was an accident seeing as the gamemakers control the weather inside the arena. Whether it contain enough food to feed a district or a moldy slice of bread, we had to attempt to get it or the gamemakers would kill us.

"Come on, let's pack up." I told Peeta, he nodded and we packed away our sleeping bags, the little food we had, and our one remaining water bottle after filling it from a nearby pond. It took us only an hour before we found ourselves on the edge of the woods, looking at the shining golden surface that had been the first thing we saw in the games.

"What's our strategy?" Peeta questioned, I pondered this, we needed some kind of plan seeing as we had no weapons and neither of us are the fastest runners. I had come up with our plans for everything else we did in the arena, from distracting the careers with multiple fires, at the same time probably gettng a laugh out of the audience, to teaming up with Rue for a brief period of time before she left us to attempt to find Thresh.

"What if we hide inside, than run out when the table comes up?" Peeta seemed to be thinking this over, but finally he agreed. We waited until the anthem played and it had just begun to darken before making a full out sprint towards the entrance of the cornucopia just in case anyone else was watching. We stayed in the back, towards the tail, trying not to make any noise. Peeta took the first watch and I gratefully allowed sleep to overtake me.

The sky finally began to lighten, golden and rose brush strokes colored the black canvas as the stars disappeared slowly. I woke Peeta and we hid near the entrance with baited breath until the sun became visible. There was a great rumbling as a banquet rose to the ground on a table covered in a teal cloth. I ran to grab one end of the cloth with Peeta grabbed the other; and we ran towards each other, making a large bundle that Peeta threw over his shoulder, than we ran towards the trees where we could hide.

Cato's scream of rage could be heard nearby, and I turned my head to see him chasing few feet behind us. He held a long sword in his hands that he threw straight at my head, I ducked, but it hit Peeta in front of me, going through his leg and pinning him to the ground. I made to pull it out, but two large hands grabbed me and wrapped around my throat, forcing the air from my body. I tried to scream out for Peeta to run as I felt the life leave my body, but Cato's grasp was too tight. My last thought before blacking out was that sometimes even a shield can't save you, and then I imagined that I heard my own cannon as the darkness overtakes me.

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_A/N: I would really appreciate if you could review and tell me what you think, I feel like I'm not writing to the best of my ability and would appreciate any and all constructive criticism you may have for me :) Thank you so much for reading._


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